#10 tips to give customers a useable, accessible toilet

The potential risk of flushing £0000s down the toilet can now be avoided for venues wanting to open their doors to disabled customers.

Closomat, the country’s leading supplier and installer of Changing Places assisted accessible toilets, has produced a quick reference checklist to help all involved in the design and provision of the facilities get it right. The guide is available for free download from the company’s website www.closomat.co.uk, via the resources/ away from home tabs.

Kelvin Grimes, Closomat away from home project manager explains,

“Working as closely with those that need Changing Places toilets as we do, we get to hear about the spectrum of problems they encounter, even though a venue has tried to open its doors to them. It can be something as simple as the toilet is not signed, so they can’t even find it. It can be something as fundamental as insufficient ceiling height to use the hoist to lift their loved one from a wheelchair, or the hoist not reaching crucial fixtures such as the WC!”

“Big or small, the issues are enough to prevent those that need Changing Places being able to use the facilities that are available. That means the venue has wasted the capital investment. Hopefully our guide will help get it right going forward, so the venues benefit from their investment, and users benefit from having a toilet they CAN use.”

Changing Places toilets are an additional provision over and above conventional wheelchair-accessible toilets. Whilst currently a ‘desirable’ option, there may soon be legislative changes making their provision compulsory. Changing Places provide more space and equipment, to enable people who need help to deal with their intimate hygiene when away from home to do so in an appropriate environment. Closomat was the original sponsor of the campaign for Changing Places when it began over a decade ago, and is today the recognised #1 for their supply, install, commissioning and subsequent service & maintenance of the equipment it supplies; its website is the ‘go to’ resource for support information, featuring typical layouts, ‘fly through’ video, CAD blocks, NBS specification clauses, and useful guidance including the ‘top tips’, case studies, and white papers.